Bizarre voting patterns in the past

[minionofmidas]

Jefferson county, Iowa. I found this extremely bizzare.

The following totals are for candidates that are not members of the Republican, Democrat, Green or Reform parties.

2000 - 16.3% - Other
1996 - 22.8% - Other
1992 - 23.9% - Other

I don't know what's been going on over in Jefferson Co. Iowa these past three elections. It's a recent occurance, too. If you go back to elections in '88, '84, '80, '76...the "other" vote in the county usually doesn't exceed 2%.

I think that was John Hagelin--Natural Law Party candidate who was from there.

The Natural Law endorsement also propelled Kucinich to victory in the primary in that county.

But the Alachua result is great. (chuckles) An absolute majority for Marxists in North Florida...incredible. And it's not a handful-of-inhabitants county either.

[minionofmidas]

Jefferson county, Iowa. I found this extremely bizzare.

The following totals are for candidates that are not members of the Republican, Democrat, Green or Reform parties.

2000 - 16.3% - Other
1996 - 22.8% - Other
1992 - 23.9% - Other

I don't know what's been going on over in Jefferson Co. Iowa these past three elections. It's a recent occurance, too. If you go back to elections in '88, '84, '80, '76...the "other" vote in the county usually doesn't exceed 2%.

Mum's the word.

Fairfield, the county seat, is also the location of Maharishi University of Management (and more restaurants per capita than San Francisco).  Two miles north is the newly incorporated Maharishi Vedic City.

Yeah, John Hagelin stronghold. In 2004, the Natural Law party did not run a candidate, and these votes went to Kerry. In the 2004 Iowa caucus, Dennis Kucinich ran second in the county, thanks to Natural Law backing.

[minionofmidas]

perhaps the most bizarre voting pattern though is that of Alachua county, Florida's top 3 candidates were this:

Hoover (Republican) - 35.01%
Thomas (Socialist) - 32.18%
Foster (Communist) - 30.15%

Dave Leip explained that Florida voters cast their votes for individual electors (if a state had N electors, a voter could vote for N of the candidates listed on the ballot).  Traditionally, when such a system is used, the vote total of the leading elector candidate of a party slate is the one that is reported.  In Alachua County, the ballot layout was confusing or unconventional such that many voters voted for some of the wrong party candidates.  So where a voter might be expecting the following electoral slate (all GOP candidates):

George Washington (GOP)
John Adams (GOP)
Thomas Jefferson (GOP)

the ballot had:

James Madison (GOP)
James Monroe (Communist)
John Q Adams (Socialist)

I don't know the ballot details, but it is quite possible that Hoover's name did not appear on the ballot, and possibly the party affiliation.  Or maybe it was just confusing (like the butterfly ballot of 2000).  So many voters intending to vote the GOP slate accidentally voted for a Communist and a Socialist.  Each had the high total for his respective party, and it is this number that is reported.  The fact that there was small dropoffs indicates that a small percentage of the voters knew the correct elector names.

Democrat actually, not GOP.